How to Make a Salmon Rice Bowl in 25 Minutes

A good salmon rice bowl is the fastest way I know to make a weeknight dinner feel like takeout. Salmon roasts with a sticky honey-soy glaze, warm rice goes in the bottom of the bowl, and cool cucumber, carrot and avocado sit on top with a spicy yogurt mayo. It takes 25 minutes if your rice is already cooked, and each bowl has 38 g of protein.

Jump straight to the recipe below, then check the variations if you want a teriyaki version, an air fryer shortcut or a way to pack it for lunch.

Salmon rice bowl ingredients

Serves 2. Prep 10 minutes, cook 15 minutes.

For the glazed salmon

• 2 salmon fillets, 5 oz (140 g) each, skin on or off
• 1 tbsp (16 g) soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tbsp (21 g) honey
• 1 tsp (4.5 g) toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated

For the bowls

• 1 2/3 cups (300 g) cooked short-grain white rice, warm
• 1/2 large avocado (100 g), sliced
• 1 small cucumber (150 g), thinly sliced
• 1 medium carrot (60 g), shredded
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 sheet roasted nori, cut into strips (optional)

For the spicy yogurt mayo

• 1/4 cup (60 g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp (15 g) light mayonnaise
• 2 tsp (10 g) sriracha, or to taste

How to make it

1. Heat the oven to 425°F and line a small sheet pan with parchment.
2. Whisk the soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, rice vinegar and garlic in a small bowl. Pat the salmon dry, set it on the pan and brush it with half the glaze.
3. Roast for 10 to 12 minutes, until the salmon flakes easily with a fork at its thickest point. Brush with the rest of the glaze and broil for 1 to 2 minutes, watching closely, until sticky and browned at the edges.
4. While the salmon roasts, stir together the Greek yogurt, mayonnaise and sriracha. Slice the cucumber, avocado and scallions and shred the carrot.
5. Divide the warm rice between two bowls. Flake the salmon into large pieces, or leave the fillets whole, and set it on the rice.
6. Arrange the cucumber, carrot and avocado around the salmon. Drizzle with the spicy yogurt mayo and finish with sesame seeds, scallions and nori.

Per bowl: about 695 calories, 38 g protein, 65 g carbs, 31 g fat and 5 g fiber.

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Tips for the best salmon bowl

Glaze twice, broil once. Honey burns if it sits in a 425°F oven for the whole bake. Brushing half the glaze on at the start and the rest at the end, then giving it a minute under the broiler, gets you the shiny, slightly charred top without a bitter edge. Stay by the oven for that last minute.

Use short-grain rice if you can. It is a little sticky, so it holds together under the chopsticks or fork and soaks up the sauce. Jasmine works too. Brown rice adds chew and fiber, though it takes about twice as long to cook, so make a batch ahead.

Keep hot and cold apart. The best bites are warm rice and salmon against cold, crunchy cucumber. Slice the vegetables while the fish roasts and add them right before eating.

Don’t chase a perfect fillet. If the salmon breaks when you lift it off the pan, flake it. Nobody can tell in a bowl, and flaked salmon actually spreads the glaze through the rice better.

If you’re not sure when salmon is done, the FoodSafety.gov safe minimum internal temperature chart lists the target for fish; an instant-read thermometer takes the guesswork out the first few times.

Salmon bowl variations

Salmon teriyaki bowl

For a thicker, glossier sauce, simmer 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tsp grated ginger, the garlic and 2 tbsp water in a small pan, then stir in 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water. Cook until it coats a spoon, about a minute. Brush some on the salmon before roasting and spoon the rest over the finished bowl. Skip the spicy mayo or keep it; both work.

Air fryer salmon

Brush the fillets with half the glaze and air fry at 400°F for 7 to 9 minutes, then brush with the rest and give them one more minute. No broiler needed, and the edges crisp up nicely. We have more healthy air fryer recipes if your basket is getting a workout.

Leftover salmon rice bowl

Cooked salmon from last night? Flake it over leftover rice, splash with a little soy sauce, cover and microwave until steaming. Top with the cold vegetables, mayo and nori strips and eat it by scooping rice and salmon into the seaweed. This is the version that went viral on social media, and it’s the reason I always cook an extra fillet.

More protein, more vegetables

Add a handful of shelled edamame, shredded red cabbage or quick-pickled radishes. Halving the rice to 150 g total cuts about 100 calories per bowl; make up the volume with extra cucumber or a pile of greens.

You’ll also loveHigh Protein Hummus Made Creamy With Cottage Cheese

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Can you meal prep salmon bowls?

Yes, with a little planning. Cook the salmon and rice, let them cool, and pack them in containers with the vegetables in a separate compartment. Keep the sauce in a small jar and slice the avocado the morning you eat it, or swap it for edamame, which holds up better.

On timing: the FoodSafety.gov cold food storage chart gives fresh fatty fish like salmon 1 to 3 days in the refrigerator before cooking and 2 to 3 months in the freezer, so buy it close to the day you cook it or freeze it right away. The chart has no separate line for cooked fish; I eat cooked salmon bowls within 3 days, inside the 3 to 4 days it lists for cooked meat and poultry leftovers.

Cold salmon is good straight from the fridge. If you prefer it warm, reheat the rice and salmon covered at low power and add the cold toppings after. The same build-a-box approach is laid out step by step in our chicken and rice meal prep, and you can swap salmon in for any of those lunches.

Is a salmon rice bowl healthy?

It’s a balanced, filling dinner: protein from the fish, carbs from the rice, fat from the salmon and avocado, and crunch from raw vegetables. Per USDA FoodData Central, 100 g of raw farmed Atlantic salmon has 208 calories and 20.4 g of protein, which is where most of this bowl’s 38 g comes from.

At about 695 calories, this is a full dinner portion. The sauce is the easy place to save: swapping most of the mayo for Greek yogurt keeps the creamy, spicy finish with far less fat than a classic sriracha mayo. Soy sauce is salty, so use a reduced-sodium one if you watch sodium. For more ideas, browse our healthy salmon recipes for dinner, including a sesame salmon bowl with edamame, or our high protein recipes ranked by protein per calorie.

Is this the same as a poke bowl?

Not quite. A poke bowl uses raw, cubed fish sold for eating raw, marinated and served cold over rice. This bowl uses cooked salmon, so you can buy any good fillet at the regular fish counter. The toppings overlap a lot, so if you love poke, the cucumber, avocado, sesame and nori here will feel familiar.

How we calculated the nutrition

Numbers are estimates per bowl, calculated from USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g (SR Legacy) at the weights listed: farmed Atlantic salmon (raw weight), cooked short-grain white rice, avocado, cucumber with peel, carrot, honey, soy sauce (tamari), sesame oil, nonfat Greek yogurt, light mayonnaise, sriracha and sesame seeds. Garlic, rice vinegar, scallions and nori are left out because their amounts are tiny. USDA does not report fiber for the cooked rice entry, so the real fiber count is slightly higher.

Sources

• USDA FoodData Central (via GetFoodFacts): Fish, salmon, Atlantic, farmed, raw, FDC 175167
• USDA FoodData Central (via GetFoodFacts): Rice, white, short-grain, enriched, cooked, FDC 168882
• USDA FoodData Central (via GetFoodFacts): Avocados, raw, FDC 171705
• USDA FoodData Central (via GetFoodFacts): Yogurt, Greek, plain, nonfat, FDC 170894
• FoodSafety.gov: Cold Food Storage Chart
• FoodSafety.gov: Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures